Homeowners still extending living spaces to the outdoors

By Stephanie Cavanaugh

Special to The Washington Post



Jack Stein and Peter Meccariello had just finished renovating their narrow Victorian in Capitol Hill's Eastern Market neighborhood when they caught an episode of "Landscapers' Challenge" on HGTV.
On a whim, they applied to the show for a backyard overhaul and faster than you can say crabgrass, the show's producer called and the homeowners found themselves choosing among three garden designers to transform their jungle into an urban paradise.
"We wanted water close to the house that we could see and hear," said Meccariello, recalling their fantasy list. "And a grill area." 

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Beauty Meets Function in Sweden’s Tiled Stoves

For Home & Design Magazine
By Stephanie Cavanaugh

Sitting atop a hill overlooking a river, the winter wind whips raw around Bengt Swenson’s home in Franklin, Michigan. Here, temperatures sometimes dip to 20 below. The Swedish-born architect’s studio claims the hill’s highest point, enjoying a vista that is at once marvelously dramatic and excruciatingly cold. But all is toasty within—and quite stunningly so—thanks to the 140-year old wood stove that occupies a prideful corner.

Just A Bit Bigger Than a Doll's House

Tiny Homes, Once Built For 'the Poorest People,' Have an Outsized Appeal
By Stephanie Cavanaugh
Special to The Washington Post

The average size of a new house built in the United States last year was 2,324 square feet. Linda Crowley Horger's circa 1890 place on Capitol Hill would practically fit in the family room.
Two stories high and two rooms deep, the house is a scant 552 square feet. Her tiny kitchen has a microwave but no oven and no dishwasher. The counter has a sink, a two-burner electric cooktop and enough counter space to butter toast. There's no central air conditioning -- she hasn't figured out where to put the paraphernalia -- and there's no washer and dryer.

It was exactly the kind of house she had in mind when she moved here from Philadelphia 20 years ago.

Trading the Tool Shed for Party Space

Dressed-Up Structures Can Revitalize Your Back Yard
By Stephanie Cavanaugh
Special to The Washington Post

Garden designer Jane MacLeish once installed a 400-square-foot tent at the home of a Syrian oil magnate and his wife in the District's Kalorama neighborhood.

It was set beside the pool on a pink granite terrace, surrounded by pale pink tulips, peonies and roses to match the wife's jewelry.

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Cultivating your Home's First Impression

By Stephanie Cavanaugh
Special to The Washington Post


When Alex Dencker, manager of Behnke Garden Center in Beltsville, put his red brick colonial in Silver Spring on the market late last summer, his window boxes exploded with crotons, creeping Jenny and New Guinea impatiens in blazing shades of red, orange and yellow.

Talk about curb appeal.

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Centuries of Drama at Halcyon House

By Stephanie Cavanaugh
Special to The Washington Post

In Greek mythology, a halcyon was a bird said to calm rough seas. "It also means peaceful and prosperous," real estate agent Hugh Oates said.

That about sums up Georgetown's Halcyon House.

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Desperately Seeking St. Augustine

To Get to the Heart of This Quirky Old City, You Just Have to Know Where to Look
By Stephanie Cavanaugh
Special to The Washington Post

Each year, when we visit my sisters in Palm Beach County, my husband, Gregory, and I take a side trip in search of our perfect version of Florida, on the off chance that we might someday retire. Someplace close to family, but not too close, if you know what I mean.

Much of what we've seen is as weird as a Carl Hiaasen novel, which has its appeal. But a touch of the gothic (in atmosphere and maybe some Gothic revival architecture) is required, and that's the harder touch to find. Savannah in Florida, I'm thinking, or Key West (so far the closest thing to Our Vision) without the hundred-mile hurricane evacuations.

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